Lose Lose Situations
by SoulSeeker
Summary: Elliot hated the late nights. One shot.


**Title:** Lose Lose Situations  
**Author:** Amm (SoulSeeker)  
**Fandom:** _Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:_ Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson investigate sex crimes that are called into SVU—rapes, homicides, and everything in between.  
**Wordcount:** 1,071  
**Taunt:** My fandom has an Asian psychologist who voiced Li Shang in Mulan.

* * *

Elliot hated the late nights.

It happened, of course. And often. It was only natural in his line of work. Cases that ran long, victims that needed protection. But he didn't necessarily _enjoy_ staying up until the wee hours of the morning. And it didn't please him—_not one bit_—that on one of the few nights that work didn't get in the way of his sleep, he had to stay up worrying about his daughter.

His wife Kathy had gone to sleep, of course. She had tried to convince him to do the same: she was at a party, she was having fun. He shouldn't bother her. But he just couldn't do it. He had seen too many horrible things happen to girls like her. She was supposed to be home three hours ago. She hadn't tried to call or text or anything, and he wasn't answering his calls that he was making, every half hour. It was now three AM.

He sat alone, picking at the food on the plate in front of him, from when he had decided to get a midnight snack. Sushi he had found in the fridge; leftovers, from when they had gone out to that Japanese restaurant the night before. He never cared for it, honestly, but it was the only thing he could find. They hadn't had much time for grocery shopping lately.

He sighed, and was idly pouring soy sauce on the last few California rolls when he finally heard the sound of a key being used on the front door. It was opening slowly, and he looked on in anticipation. His daughter quietly slipped in.

"Where have you been?" Elliot demanded immediately, making his presence known.

The look of surprise on Kathleen's face quickly turned to disappointment and frustration, when it met with her dad's.

"You seriously waited up for me?" she asked. "Come _on_, dad, that is _so_ lame."

"Of course I did!" he replied. "You were supposed to be home _three hours_ ago. At midnight. _Where have you been?_"

"At the party!" she answered in a loud voice. "It just ran late, that's all, and I wasn't looking at the time. We were catching up! And before you ask, no. I _didn't_ drink."

"Why didn't you call?" He ignored her, continuing his assault of questions. "Why didn't you pick up your phone?"

"It _died_," she replied exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "My god! I'm _sorry._"

"You're damn right, you are. Because you're grounded."

"_What?!_"

Elliot couldn't help but feel they had had this argument before. Her disobeying the rules, him trying to punish her—it all seemed so routine now. Which, he realized, definitely said something about this_ family_ of his. He stared at her firmly and unwaveringly as she stared back, each trying to get the other to break first. His impatience, however, rose quickly.

"You heard me. Give me your phone, and get to bed. Now."

"For how long?!" Kathleen demanded to know. Her hands were mounted at her hips, as Elliot held out his hand; but she didn't move an inch to pull out her phone from her pocket.

"Until I say so."

His hand was still hanging in midair when she finally complied. She was aggressive, and held the phone up to her dad to show its clearly black screen. It certainly _looked_ dead—either that, or she had turned it off somehow since she'd gotten home. Either way, he was going to find out, though he really hated not being able to take her word for it.

"You're impossible, you know that?" Kathleen was yelling. "_Impossible._ For once, you didn't need to check up on me. We were hanging out, I _wasn't_... God, I just... I hate you. I hate you, I HATE you!"

Before he could react, she had chucked the phone at him. As hard as she could. That anger on her face, the determination in her eyes—he could tell. She had aimed a little low though, and the phone had hit the table in front of him, with a loud clang that may or may not have woken the wife. Elliot had watched anxiously, as it slid towards him. And right into the small plastic container of sushi he was eating, and completely forgot about.

It was now all over his pants, and some of his shirt. White rice, the green wasabi, the black soy sauce. His attire was dark, so he was lucky in that regard. But it would be a while before he would be rid of the smell...

_Son of a bitch._

"Kathleen!" Elliot's voice roared angrily after her as he stood up; but it was too late. His daughter was already up the stairs, and he heard her door slam with a vengeance as a familiar ring tone began to play.

It was his phone.

He almost didn't pick it up. Judging by the time, he didn't even have to look at the screen to know what the call was. It was three o' clock in the morning: obviously work related, and it was either Olivia, his partner, or Cragen, his boss. Eventually though, the phone did find its way from his wet pocket to his hand, and ultimately, his ear. He supposed he should have been grateful it still worked.

"Yeah, Stabler," he answered with a sigh.

"Hey, Elliot, sorry to wake you. Need you down at the Precinct." The voice was female. His first guess was right: it was his partner. "We've got a case."

"Be right there."

"Are you all right?" Olivia asked suddenly with concern.

He didn't really hear her; he was fiddling with his daughter's phone now, which had actually been spared from the sushi mess. It had turned on, which he suspected would happen. Her phone hadn't died; it _rang_ when he dialed in, and didn't go to straight to voice mail. He remembered that. She had lied, and he was pretty angry about it. He was angry about being right. But he would've been angry if he had been wrong, too. If he had yelled at his daughter for nothing.

It was a perfect lose-lose situation.

"Elliot?" Liv's voice from the other end of the line had reminded him that he was still on the phone. "I just asked if you were all right..."

"Yeah, fine," he replied, disdainfully. "But I hope you like the smell of soy sauce."

And he let out a long, long sigh.

_God, I hate raw fish._

_

* * *

__**A/N: **Wow. I'm still kind of in shock I wrote this, heh. This is the first fic I've written that is not for something anime, or animated in general. I decided to give this a shot because I am working on a project, writing 100 different fanfics (drabbles) for 100 different fandoms. SVU is my favorite Law & Order, and I decided it should be one of them._

_I got this idea from the episode "Zebras," when Olivia mentions that she knew Elliot was in trouble, because "spoiler" had mentioned that he was getting sushi."You, and raw fish?"_

_I don't know if they ever said why he doesn't eat or doesn't like raw fish, but I decided to come up with a plausible scenario why he might start to have a distaste for it. :3 I hope you enjoyed._


End file.
